


No Such Thing As A Free Lunch

by thegraeyone



Series: Competitionverse [2]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Corporate, Anxiety, Other, me writing this au: business business business, non-binary duke devlin, pegasus ruins everything as usual
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-21
Updated: 2021-01-21
Packaged: 2021-03-13 03:27:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28896600
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegraeyone/pseuds/thegraeyone
Summary: Seto Kaiba shares a lunch with his business-partner-with-benefits Duke Devlin. Unfortunately, Duke's boss tags along. What could possibly go wrong?
Relationships: Kaiba Seto/Otogi Ryuuji | Duke Devlin
Series: Competitionverse [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2107272
Kudos: 1





	No Such Thing As A Free Lunch

**Author's Note:**

> Duke is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns.

Seto tapped his phone against the tabletop of the gourmet restaurant he’d spent the last half hour waiting in. He’d arrived early, procured the table himself. He’d gotten used to the eateries in San Francisco thanks to his more frequent visits over the last three months. Tanaka still gave him a look when he had the flight booked, no doubt anticipating his boss’ sour moods and long rants, but he also had to notice a change in Seto’s demeanor upon returning. Business meetings with Industrial Illusions were still a nightmare, and their lawyers snapped back and forth at each other over the legalese in every contract and agreement. But Seto’s visits were no longer so stress inducing.

And yet, here he was, forcing himself out in public before his dinner partners had a chance to arrive, scoping the scene and menu in case Pegasus or their other competitors decided to pull any tricks. A dinner was never dinner when it was business.

But, he considered, pausing his nervous habit to glance at the phone screen, it didn’t mean he had nothing to look forward to. A text graced the bright screen, a row of emoji cars. Seto had no idea how he appeared in Duke’s contacts, but in his, the sender was only an emoji devil who grinned at him beneath the time and date.

Three months ago, he’d started… something with Duke Devlin. The nature of the relationship was not clearly defined. It could not be. There were agreements made: this was casual, with each party free to fool around however they like when not together; this was just sex, with no emotional boundaries being crossed; this was secret, because the ramifications of getting caught were too much for either party to deal with. In the offices, at work, they were professional, never crossing any boundaries. Seto had made three more visits since the first affair, and he’d watched as Duke flirted and shmoozed with just about everyone. It was a skill they had. It made them welcome in a room. But, once they’d left their respective offices, they made their way to a bar, or a diner, or a bakery always of Duke’s choosing, and then back to Seto’s apartment. And then Seto was on a plane. In Japan, he rarely sent Duke any messages that weren’t work related. But he couldn’t deny that when taking a call from Industrial Illusions, or attempting to correspond with the overseas team, or just planning a meeting, there was Duke. Usually sitting at Pegasus’ side, always smiling at him.

Extracting what they were doing from work was an impossible feat, which was why tonight their meeting was different. He’d thought he was prepared, but it struck him anyway when he heard the sharp, ringing voice of Maximillion Pegasus as he called out, “Kaiba-boy!”

Seto grit his teeth and locked his shoulders as Pegasus strutted forward with his usual pomp. He looked ostentatious as always in a pink suit, the lace lined eyepatch on the left side of his face half-hidden by his silver hair. The clack of his shoes were the warning sounds of a predator getting closer, his voice a gunshot through the quiet restaurant. Seto could not stand him. He was the largest thorn in his side, a fist sized ulcer waiting to happen, and the probably the cause of death written on his autopsy. He could not stomach a moment longer in his presence if he didn’t have to.

Except that trailing behind him was Duke, who wore their usual long top and skinny black pants that showed off the length of their legs. Their arms were bare, as they often were, the shoulders of their pale skin freckled. They flashed him a smile, and he allowed himself to admire the color of their lipstick for only a moment.

“You’re late,” he growled in Pegasus’ direction as both dinner companions took their seats. The rounded table meant Pegasus sat across from him, with Duke between them. A waiter rushed up with a wine menu. Seto waved him away while the other two ordered.

“Don’t give me that face,” Pegasus sighed as he leaned forward, curling his chin in his hand. “I was  _ delighted _ when you agreed to my invitation. You’re always such a wet blanket. I’d have let dear Duke talk to you sooner if I knew the effect it’d have on you.”

Seto only tilted his head to Duke. “It’s a shame you’ve been hiding your real talent this whole time.”

“Duke is one of our brightest minds,” Pegasus said simply, folding his napkin into his lap. “Clearly, since they’re clever enough to pull you out of whichever hole you prefer.”

Seto reconsidered his decision not to drink. Duke propped an elbow on the table, dipping their head forward to hide Pegasus behind their mane of hair.

“It wasn’t exactly difficult,” they said, and their lips curled.

Seto reached for his water. “You’ve approved their concept then.”

“Oh, Kaiba-boy,” Pegasus sighed and lifted up his glass as the waiter poured his drink. “It’s always business with you. I believe fully in enjoying the fruit of one’s youth. You work yourself too hard.”

Duke also accepted a glass of red and brought it to their lips. “You’ve always said ambition is a good thing.”

“I have, haven’t I?” He brushed his silver hair back with a dramatic flourish. “But I hate to discuss business over dinner, and I think you do as well. You can ask me again in the office tomorrow.”

Duke tipped their drink back further before returning it to the table, wiping their mouth with a not entirely happy look. Appetizers were placed on large party platters and served to them. Seto had picked the spot without much thought to the menu, and the word “artisanal” had been thrown around a lot. Several bite sized flatbreads were placed in front of them, alongside collections of cheeses and olives. He felt relief at having food in front of him to shore up his strength, until he noticed the slightest wrinkle of Duke’s nose as they picked up a piece of bread.

“What do you talk about over dinner?” Seto asked, stuffing a flatbread into his mouth. “I can’t imagine you offering up small talk.”

“Conversation never was your strong suit,” Pegasus said, idly twirling his glass. “Of course, who can blame you? Your predecessor was never one for words either.”

Heat burned behind Seto’s face. He imagined taking the silver knife and stabbing it into Pegasus’ good eye. Duke offered up a sunny smile.

“We’ve never had much problem finding something to talk about,” they said and turned back to Pegasus. “Of course, I find roleplaying stats interesting.”

“Why shouldn’t you?” Seto growled. “It’s only your job.”

“You should get him started on Minecraft.” They gave him a teasing look. “He rebuilt his theme park in there.”

“How is your little circus?” Pegasus asked.

“We have three new attractions about to be unveiled,” Seto snapped. “We don’t like our rides to get too old and stale.”

“Not yet ready for the international market, I take it.”

“You’ll have to tell me. How was your trip to Germany?”

Pegasus laughed, a high sound that made Seto’s ears rings, and both he and Duke jumped. A waiter nervously approached for the menus, and with more wine in hand.

“I’m starting to see why you avoid these dinners,” Duke said as their orders were jotted down.

“Oh, I don’t take it personally,” Pegasus crooned. “Kaiba’s always barking and has yet to bite. Though von Schroeder has certainly felt it.”

Seto glowered at him. “I thought you didn’t discuss business over diner.”

He only smiled. “You’ve got my attention.”

Seto sat forward, trying to calm his thoughts. Conversation with Pegasus was like needles in his frontal lobe. He started at the feel of a hand on his thigh and looked to Duke, who only sipped their wine without a blink in their expression. The touch was soothing, rather than salacious. Seto swallowed down more water.

“The German must have something good,” Seto said. “You flew out yourself to see it.”

“Zigfried’s greatest strength has always been his ability to bolster himself up.” Pegasus stabbed at an olive with a toothpick. “He lacks your presentation. You’ll have your virtual projects ready to roll out by next summer, correct?”

Seto’s jaw clenched. Duke’s hand slipped away.

“I hadn’t yet unveiled them,” Seto said.

Pegasus nodded serenely. “I know. Under lock and key. You’re getting paranoid, dear boy.”

“I can’t imagine why.”

“The von Schroeders are looking to have theirs out to market by the holiday season.” Pegasus shrugged his lofty shoulders. “He’s still sour, I think, over your beating him to the punch in our dealings.”

“It’ll be a rush,” Duke said. “They’re looking to make it a fad more than give it any lasting power. Everyone will have to have one, and then they’ll worry about the bugs later.”

“Duke thinks we should have a game ready to release with it.” Pegasus passed an admiring smile their way. “You two got me so excited over your RPG, I think we can boil down the concept and have it packaged by then.”

Seto looked at Duke, who was doing their best to look at neither of them.

“It’s not a concept to be  _ boiled down _ ,” Seto said. “You’re looking to turn it into some generic roguelike that you can package and sell by Christmas with a subpar system.”

“I think it’s a good idea,” Duke said into their wine glass. “We haven’t had a large release in a while. And simpler games tend to grab attention more easily.”

Pegasus waved a hand. “I’d be happy to talk virtual technology with you as well, Kaiba-boy, but you’ve yet to show me anything.”

Seto’s grip curled around his water glass. “It’s not ready yet.”

“You’re always such a perfectionist,” he said with a sigh. “You’ve never really grasped that time is short. You move or the market does. We are not all waiting with baited breath to see what you do next.”

“If you had some prototypes,” Duke said earnestly, and they swept their green eyes to Seto. “Even if Pegasus has made up his mind, I’d love to see them. Maybe I can get my travel expenses to Japan on the Industrial Illusion budget.”

“More surprising things have happened,” Pegasus said.

Duke’s head whipped their smile around to him. “I think I could convince Kaiba here to share.”

Their hand moved to touch Seto’s wrist, and he pulled away, standing suddenly. Duke startled. Pegasus remained amused. Mumbling an excuse, Seto marched towards the bathrooms. His thoughts were like an air siren as he pushed open the door to the single stall and slammed his palm against the cold water of the sink. It poured out, and he jammed his hands underneath the flow, reminding himself to breathe.

Pegasus was always and would always be a thorn in his side. Seto had accepted that at the age of eighteen. But he’d always been singular, a monolith. Collusion was something new. Or, that wasn’t right. He’d dealt with shady benefactors and disgruntled board members attempting to take away his control. It was not the first time von Schroeder had tried to undermine him, and his going to Pegasus was a petty stab at how they’d begun their working relationship. Seto had learned from the moment he’d been given the name Kaiba that he could trust no one and give nothing. And there were weak links in his chain. Even outside of family, Isono had been with him so long Seto could not help but turn to the man, even as retirement loomed, and Tanaka had proven such a faithful and prescient assistant that Seto poured every luxury in his lap to keep any vultures away. But they were professional relationships. The lines did not blur with them.

It was his own fault, Seto reasoned. Duke made themself so likeable, so easy to talk to. He’d forgotten what side of the table they were sitting at.

A gentle knock at the door roused him from his thoughts. He took his time, turning off the water, taking a paper towel from the dispenser, before he opened it. Duke smiled at him from outside. They slipped underneath his arm to join him. After a moment, Seto closed the door again, clicking the lock. Duke clung close, hands moving down the line of his suit jacket. They smiled up at him, batting their eyes.

“I thought it might be getting a little tense out there,” they said. “Maybe you want to relieve some stress.”

Seto stared at them with wide eyes. He clutched his hands over theirs. “Why are you doing this?”

They lifted their head up in invitation. “I thought it’d be kind of hot, honestly.”

He removed their hands from him. Their expression faltered, and they stepped back.

“You’re letting Pegasus gut your idea,” he said.

Duke shifted, the easiness of their stance freezing up. “It’s not really your problem.”

“You pitched it to me.” Seto watched them. “You wanted to see what I would do with it.”

“Look, I don’t even think Pegasus is going to go though with it.” They turned to the mirror and busied themself adjusting the curls that didn’t make it into their ponytail. “I think he’s unhappy with von Schroeder’s project, but he’s trying to put the pressure on you. He wants to see what you can do.”

“And he doesn’t want that for you.”

They glared at him in the mirror. “I told you it’s not your problem.”

“You haven’t been happy with him all evening. You’re angry.”

“I’m not--” They huffed out a breath, blowing a curl from their eyes. “I understand. I know what he’s doing. And if you would play nice for two seconds, I could convince him to give us a second shot--”

“ _ Play nice _ ?” Seto snarled. “With  _ Pegasus _ ? Do you not hear the words that come out of his mouth?”

“Of course I do,” they said. “And I hear you shooting back. Do you know why I wanted to meet you so badly? I’ve been begging Pegasus for a year now to let me sit in on your meetings because I had to know. You’re all he talks about. Do you know how many people would kill for the kind of attention you get from him? How hard von Schroeder works to reach second place and you’re still miles ahead of him? Pegasus loves you.”

“He hates me.”

“He respects you,” Duke snapped.

Seto sucked in a breath. The room felt small and constrained. Their voices echoed off the tile into his own head. He heard himself laugh like it was coming from somewhere else.

“He has a strange way of showing it,” he said.

“Oh, is he a little mean?” Duke simpered. “I can’t imagine. No one’s ever been insulted by Seto Kaiba.”

His hands clenched at his side. His back went rigid. “Do not compare me to him.”

“Why not?” They threw up their hands. “That man out there is who we’re all trying to be. Whether you say it or not. You want what he has, it’s why you put up with his shit, and we have all earned our place at that table. So, yeah, sometimes I go along with whatever plot he’s scheming up today because I trust that he knows what he’s doing. And he always does. For being a genius and all, he sure can outsmart you.”

Seto breathed in through his nose, his heart pounding his throat. He needed to get out of here. His hand fumbled with the lock in his haste, and Duke shouted something after him. Seto didn’t hear it. He marched up to the table, slapping down a black card just as the food was being brought out.

“Going so soon?” Pegasus lilted.

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” was all he growled before he stormed away.

\---

Sleep did not come easily to Seto. Around midnight, he lay on his back for ten minutes before deciding that was boring, and he opened his laptop instead. Emails, memos, messages from Tanaka marked as urgent. He shot a few out to his R&D department demanding a progress report. The employee chat channel kicked up a flurry at his activity. His eyes swam trying to read it all, so he lay back down for another fifteen minutes before giving up. The only notifications on his phone came from three recipients. He hovered a hand over the chat with his sister before tossing the phone aside. He opened his laptop again to see how secure von Schroeder’s servers were, when his phone started to vibrate. He paused, picked it up, and looked at the devil emoji that stared up at him. He tapped the accept icon.

He didn’t say anything as he brought the phone to his ear. Road noises filtered in through the phone’s speaker, a few passing cars and a distant wail of a siren. Gentle breathing filled Seto’s ear. He waited.

He could hear the intake of Duke’s breath as they readied to speak. They said, “This sucks.”

Seto pressed his palm against his eye as he let out a low chuckle. “Is that your apology?”

“I hadn’t planned one,” they murmured, and then they took another breath. “Look, I’m outside your building. The doorman’s being a shit. Can you just…?”

“Yeah,” Seto said. “Hold on.”

In the fifteen minutes it took to get Duke up to the penthouse suite, Seto had removed the sweatpants he slept in and pulled on his work slacks, brushed his hair before realizing what a useless endeavor that was, and silenced his phone. The elevator chimed, and they stepped through into the now familiar front room. They were still in the outfit from earlier, their hair loose, their makeup smudged. They stared at each other from across the room. Neither was willing to blink first.

“Pegasus isn’t gutting my idea,” they said.

Seto crossed his arms over his chest. “That isn’t what it sounds like.”

“He’s giving me a chance.” They stepped forward, leaning their arms over the couch. “He’s putting me in charge of a team. It’s my project.”

“After a little course correction.”

“Which you were already doing.” They pushed a hand through their hair. “You told me from the jump we’d have to rework so many things, and I was on board. My ideas tend to be cluttered. Having a good editor is important to me. So maybe simplifying it is the best idea. And maybe it won’t be my vision, but that’s okay. This isn’t my one and only shot. And the only reason you care is because…”

They looked at him. He stared back, refusing to blink.

“I get why you don’t like him,” Duke said. They rounded the couch, sinking onto it. “I get why no one does. This isn’t the first fight I’ve seen over dinner, just the first I’ve been part of. But when I say I trust Pegasus, I mean it. He’s not diminishing me. I know what that feels like. When he does this stuff, he’s putting the pressure on, because he knows I can do it. Because he wants me to. I was a nobody when he met me. I’d just--my stuff was a mess, I was living out of a box because it was the only thing I could afford, I was drowning in debt. My first concept was so bad too. You would’ve laughed me out the room.”

Seto dropped his arms, moving to their side. He hadn’t expected this. Duke was armored, using the sharp cut of their blazer and the curl of their lip as natural weapons. Now they were showing their underbelly. Seto sat beside them, a hand hovering over their shoulder, before he pulled it away.

“Pegasus saw potential in me,” they continued. “More than anyone else. I’ve seen people come and go from Industrial Illusions, people who couldn’t stand up to Pegasus. It’s why I was so jealous of you. In five years he’s taken me from nothing to working side by side with him every day. So, yeah, maybe I’m annoyed or whatever. But I’ll get over it. I’m not giving this up.”

Seto stared down at their hands, curled together in their lap. This time, when he reached for them, their fingers curled together. Duke smiled.

“You said you didn’t want to see Industrial Illusions stagnate,” Seto said.

They nodded. “It’s why I need you to trust me. I’m not working against you, I swear. I was trying to convince Pegasus to wait for your virtual tech to be announced so we could jump on board. You’re going to use them in your park, right? That’s what the attractions are? I think we can do so much more together.”

Seto looked up at them. Their face was sincere, and the way their hand squeezed his, he absolutely believed them. Without a word, he leaned down to kiss them. They responded instantly, throwing their arms around his shoulder and climbing up to settle in his lap. They giggled when he pulled them closer and kissed his neck.

“You were jealous of me?” Seto said, and they laughed against his skin, giving a warning tug of teeth.

“It’s so embarrassing,” they said. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“You’ll have to convince me.”

Seto huffed out a laugh as they pushed him down onto the couch. They smiled over him, dark curls raining like a curtain over their shoulder. They leaned down, placing a single kiss on his nose.

“I think,” they promised, “I can do that.”


End file.
